Rechristening the PDP?

IT has not been confirmed, partly because the idea does not seem to make any sense, that the bedraggled opposition PDP might be contemplating a change of name. This contemplation is said to be predicated on two factors: the electoral liability of that name, given the party’s past atrocities; and the desire to reach accommodation with defecting political heavyweights who insist on a new and unencumbered name. Neither predication is sound. NEPA did not make ECN better, nor has PHCN made NEPA better. No name change will do the arduous work of real absolution and paradigm shift the PDP requires to successfully market itself to a suspicious and sceptical electorate. Secondly, it would be strange indeed if those defecting back to the PDP have asked for a new name for the party. APC did not win because it had a new name. After all, it was an amalgam. It won because it promised a huge difference, a promise now known to be anything but real. PDP will undermine itself by changing identity. Let it instead preoccupy itself by producing and projecting substantial difference.